Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Manobkontho reports on substandard Vitamin A Capsules (09.03.2013)

The government of
Bangladesh has taken the decision to go ahead with bringing 2.5 crore children
under the umbrella of the Vitamin A plus campaign in spite of concerns raised
by the World Health Organization. The Ministry of Health and family welfare has
taken the decision to carry out the campaign on the 12th of March after
rescheduling the campaign 3 times.

Sources have said
that this delay was to facilitate testing to prove that the Indian manufactured
capsules were ‘not harmful’ for human use. An Indian organization wasn’t able
to fully provide assurances that such capsules, about which concerns were
raised by the WHO, were safe. Finally, these capsules were released to be used
in the campaign after an analysis report from Singapore. It is mentionable that
the vitamin A plus campaign also includes administration of a tablet of de-worming
agent Albendazole.

Sources have
further said that the government purchased 10 crore pieces of the capsules from
the controversial Indian company called Olive Health care to provide vitamin A
doses to children aged 0-5 years throughout the country. However, the WHO raised concern over the quality
of the capsules, citing health concerns. After such concerns were raised, an
Indian company called SGS India Pvt Ltd was given the responsibility to test
these capsules. Even though they did not raise any product quality concerns,
questions were raised regarding their methods of testing. That was the time
when the Ministry of Health rescheduled the campaign for the first time. Then,
on the instructions of the Health Minister Dr. A.F.M Ruhul Hoq, samples were
sent to a Singaporean laboratory.

Sources have also informed that 2 batches of Vitamin A
capsules purchased three years ago from Canadian pharmaceutical company Banner
Pharma remained unused. Of this, 1,57,50,000 capsules remained from a batch of
2 lakh I.U. capsules, while another batch of 1 lakh I.U. contained around
12,00,000 capsules. These two batches are set to expire in April 2013. Throughout
the country, the demand for 2 lakh I.U. capsules is 2 crore pieces while the
demand for 1 lakh I.U. capsules is 30 lakh pieces. Based on this calculation,
the difference lies at 42 lakh and 18 lakh pieces respectively.The sources said that concerns about the quality of the Olive
Healthcare Vitamin A capsules lead to rescheduling the campaign twice, once on
the 2nd and next times on the 6th of February. It is
notable that these will be the same capsules that are going to be administered
to the children on the 12th of March.

Allegations have
surfaced of corrupt officials at the Directorate of Health vehemently campaigning
on behalf of the products of the controversial organization, Olive Health care.
In this regard, critics have also questioned the silence of the Health
Minister. The allegations raised include fact that Olive Healthcare is not part
of any list of pharmaceutical product suppliers compiled by the WHO, nor has it
marketed its products even inside India, let alone export any overseas.

Asked in this
connection, Dr. Ekhlasur Rahman, Director of Institute of Public Health
Nutition (IPHN) said that the organization (Olive Halthcare) would be
responsible only for the supply of Vitamin A capsules in the campaign. The
whole operation was under the supervision of the Health Ministry responsible
for administration and the CMSD who was responsible for the purchase of the
product. Dr. Rahman further added that although he was aware of the matter, he
did not want to comment on the quality issues surrounding the Vitamin A capsules
from Olive Healthcare due to undergoing tests to determine its safety.

Manobkonto further
reported that Central Medical Stores Depot (CMSD) Director Brigadier General
Syed Iftekhar Uddin did not receive the news team when they went to his office
premises. On the other hand, Health Minister Dr. A.F.M Ruhul Hoq did not receive nor return calls and hence
was unavailable to comment on the issue